Sealing material for vacuum vessels



y 1939. K. LENZ ET AL SEALING MATERIAL FOR VACUUM VESSELS Fil ed Dec. 2, 1957 m r NZ Mm eo t T MM n a H w p I By w Patented May 23, 1939 PATENT OFFICE SEALING MATERIAL FOR VACUUM VESSELS Kurt Lenz, Berlin-Lichterfelde,

and 1 Ernst Woeckel, Berlin-Friedenau, Germany, assignors to General Electric Company, a corporation of New York Application December 2, 1937, Serial No. 177,776

. In Germany February 3, 1937 Claims.

The present invention relates to improved materials for joining or sealing the enclosing vessels of electrical devices which are necessarily subjected to high temperatures during the course 5 of manufacture or operation.

s In the manufacture of incandescent lamps, vacuum tubes and many other enclosed electrical devices, it is necessary to take great care to avoid contamination of electrodes or other enclosed I parts by deposition of foreign substances thereon. Where the enclosing ,vessel is constituted of separate metal parts joined by a sealing material, theaforementioned consideration imposes definitelimitations on the character of the sealing l5 materials which may be satisfactorily employed,

For example, in the fabrication of electrical dis- \charge devices, if one uses solders such as silver,

copper or copper-silver alloys under conditions i such that the solder is exposed to the interior of 20 the vessel, objectionable vaporization of the solder on to the electrode surfaces occurs during the bake-out or degassing processes to which such devices are customarily subjected.

It is an object of the present invention to pro- 25 vide sealing materials which are not subject to appreciable vaporization even when heated to the temperatures ordinarily employed in bakeout processes.

This object is fulfilled in accordance with the l 3 invention by employing as a joining material for the metal parts of vacuum vessels a eutectic alloy offat least one metal of the iron group (iron, nickel and cobalt) with boron. By the term eutectic alloy is meant an alloy having the lowest 1 35 possible melting point for the given constituents.

ing material is exposed, to the interior of a vacuum vessel, no contamination of electrodes or other operative elements Within such vessel occurs during bake-out or equivalent treatments.

imately the same properties.

An iron-boron alloy with about 3.8% boron and a melting temperature of 1174 ,C. is preferred, although a nickel-boron alloy with about 4% boron and a melting point of 1140 C. has approx- The best cobaltboron combination should have approximately the same boron content as the other alloys just mentioned.

Due to the inherent brittleness of the alloys dea 55 scribed in the foregoing, it is advantageous to Consequently, even though i the joints to be sealed are so located that the sealutilize them in a pulverized state. Thus in performing sealing operations, a paste may be formed by combining the pulverized alloy with a readily evaporating liquid binder such asalcohol or purified petroleum. This paste is then placed in suitable grooves or indentations formed between the metal parts to be joined and the assembly heated to cause evaporation of the binder. As the temperature is raised to a still higher value the residual powder melts and joints the metal parts in hermetically sealed relationship.

In the single figure of the drawing we have indicated the application of the invention in connection with a vacuum tube of the all-metal type. This comprises an evacuated metal shell I containing electrodes which include an anode 2 and a cathode 3. The lower end of the envelope is flanged andis closed by means of a transverse metal header 4 which is joined to the flange. In accordance with our invention, the joint between the flange and header is sealed by means of one of the sealing alloys described in the foregoing. Such an alloy, whose presence at the sealed joint is indicated at 5, possesses a sufiiciently low vapor pressure to avoid the danger of contaminating the electrode elements during fabrication or operation of the tube.

The invention can be used not only for joining metal parts of electric vacuum vessels but also for other special vacuum vessels such as transportation tanks for rare gases.

What we claim as new and desire to obtain by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. An electrical discharge device comprising a sealed vessel enclosing electrode structure which is subject to contamination by metallic vapors, metal parts forming constituent elements of the vessel, and a metallic sealing material hermetically joining the metal parts and at least partially exposed to the interior of the vessel, said sealing material comprising a eutectic alloy of a metal of the iron group with boron.

2. The combination of claim 1 in which the sealing material consists of an alloy of about 96% nickel and about 4% boron.

3. The combination of claim 1 in which the sealing material consists of an alloy of about 96% cobalt and about 4% boron.

4. An electric discharge device comprising a sealed vessel enclosing electrode structure which is subject to contamination by metallic vapors, metal parts forming constituent elements of the vessel, and a metallic sealing material hermetical- 1y joining the metal parts and at least partially exposed to the interior of the vessel, said sealing material comprising an alloy of about 4% bor'on with about 96% of a metal of the group which consists of iron, nickel and cobalt.

5. An electrical discharge device comprising a sealed vessel enclosing electrode structure which is subject to contamination by metallic vapors, metal parts forming constituent elements of the vessel, and a metallic sealing material hermetically joining the metal parts and at least partially exposed to the interior of the vessel, said sealing material comprising an alloy of 96.2% iron and 3.8 boron.

KURT LENZ.

ERNST WOECKEL. 

